"This meeting was kind of to feel everyone out in terms of dispatching, to see if it would be viable in the future to share dispatching services," said Chief Alvilhiera. "The first thing you have to look at is public safety — is the public going to be better served than they are now? If the answer to that could be yes, it if looks like it would benefit the public that way, then you look at the financial aspect of it."

Chief Alvilhiera said the conversation is still at the earliest stages. They discussed where each town is at now in dispatching duties: Lakeville police department has dispatchers, while Middleboro uses firefighters and police officers to do its dispatching, and Plympton uses the state police for its dispatching services.

Chief Alvilhiera suggested that regionalization of services in theory sounds like a good idea that could save money, but noted that a lot of issues have to be addressed before a decision can be made. As an example, he noted that by sharing dispatching with another town he would anticipate that funding would have to be put toward that dispatching center, which would increase the budget. Lakeville dispatchers also handle other duties in the station, duties which would need to be handled by other personnel if the dispatchers no longer worked there. Officers would have to be called in on overtime if a prisoner were to be brought in so that the prisoner was not left in the station alone, which would increase his budget. Also, typically regional dispatching centers do not handle local issues, such as when there is a bad accident or a telephone pole is hit and phone calls need to be made, so an officer would have to be brought in to handle those issues if no dispatcher was in the station.

"Looking at it this way, it would probably cost us additional money," he said. "It would make a difference if 911 were going to give out thousands of dollars to do it, but I don't think that is going to happen."

This is the second time that officials have agreed to look into regionalizing the dispatching services. In 2011 Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) obtained a grant for a feasibility study to look at regionalizing dispatching services in the area, and proposed two regional emergency planning centers to cover the southeast part of the state. Lakeville and Middleboro would have been included in a center that would also have covered Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Freetown, Marion, New Bedford, and Wareham. While the towns opted not to move forward with the recommendation, Lakeville did agree to regional training offered by SRPEDD.

"I know from talking with people at the state's 911 bureau — pretty much each town has its own 911 system, and the state would like to consolidate — it cost money to repair and maintain those, and they would like to have fewer to have to repair and maintain," said Chief Alvilhiera.

Other questions that would have to be addressed before regionalized dispatching include which radio frequency or frequencies would have to be used and which departments would be on them, and which records management system would be used, and whether all departments would use the same one.

"There's a lot still up in the air, too," said Chief Alvilhiera. "Middleboro is looking at a new station, or renovating their existing station, and we are in hopes of a new station, too. Those things play into it too."